Songwriters Workshops
And Performance Series
The Fox Valley Music Foundation teamed up with two local libraries to offer insight into what makes a songwriter create a song. The 2016 Summer Songwriter Workshop and Performance Series featured six local professional songwriters who described their craft and performed before an audience at the local library. Each show in this free series featured a one-hour songwriting workshop led by the artist and was directly followed by a sixty-minute live performance. The West Branch of the Aurora Public Library and The Batavia Public Library are co-sponsoring the events with the Fox Valley Music Foundation. Learn more about the biographies of the artists.
Greg Boerner
Greg Boerner ("Burner") is a Guitarist/Singer/Songwriter originally from Augusta, Georgia, who lived in the western suburbs of Chicago for a number of years, and now lives and works in Nashville. His music is an original blend of blues, folk, country and all that comes between--Southern style.
Learn more about Greg and his unique music at www.gregboerner.com
Scott Tipping
Master guitarist and vocalist Scott Tipping has earned a place locally among guitar royalty. An integral part of local super groups - Tipping currently tours with Kofi Baker, and he's a member of Backyard Tire Fire (maybe you know him from Cornmeal, The Mighty Blue Kings, or Magic Box - to name a few) - he recently shared the stage with Los Lobos. Tipping also produces The Venue's Album Cover tribute series and leads The Scott Tipping Trio. Scott’s performances feature an intimate look at some of the material he’s been involved with, as well as a heavy sampling of blues and blues history.
Dave Ramont
Dave Ramont is a singer/songwriter and private music instructor who’s been playing his folk-pop-roots-groove throughout the Midwest and points beyond for years, whether solo or with band. He’s released several CDs, his music being heard on public/college radio across the U.S. and Europe. He carries a rock in his shoe and a song in his head.
Learn more at www.daveramont.com
Noah Gabriel
Honesty is where the best songs come from, and a decade ago - within the first lines of the first song from his very first album, no less - Noah Gabriel was already making that abundantly clear. "I don't know what to say, but I won't turn away," from the appropriately-titled "Pride," ushered Gabriel into the Chicago roots-rock scene, crafting his own blend of amiable roots-rock that pulls equally from fiery blues of Stevie Ray Vaughn or BB King and wry folk witticisms a la Lucinda Williams or Ryan Adams. From 2005's debut solo effort In Aurora to this year's Easy (as part of the power-trio Noah's Arcade), Gabriel's songs are powerful dissections of characters in desperate times or taking even more desperate measures. Learn more at http://www.noahgabriel.com/
The Kevin Trudo
The Kevin Trudo is a singer, songwriter, and musician from Aurora, Illinois who hates singers and songwriters. Yes, he writes insightful and occasionally heartbreaking songs; those songs have been hummed into a few thousand hearts over the last 15 years and of course he's a sensitive artist and passionate performer - but ask Kevin and he'll tell you that it's supposed to be fun, it's supposed to rock, it's supposed to make you move. He’ll also tell you that as a singer-songwriter, you take that Great American Song and you give it legs: you make it dance.
If a good song can touch someone, it only makes sense that in the right hands – Kevin’s - that same song can pick them right up, knock 'em down, and be both beautiful and terrifying at the same time.
Gerald Dowd
GRAMMY AWARD©-losing drummer Gerald Dowd hails from the Boston area. Since moving to Chicago in the late 1900s, he has played/sung/recorded with Robbie Fulks, Justin Roberts, Dave "Dave" Ramont, Mavis Staples, and Rich Little. He's released two albums of original songs under his own name, and he's never hang-glided. (Is that even a word? Sounds weird.)